MARRIAGE AND RELIGION

Marriage and Religion

Abstract

This study purely highlights the philosophy of marriage and its link with religious matters. Study also highlights that how the concept of marriage is changing within our modern society and why it has started. In the end, the study will describe that how marriage and religious life are interlinked with each other.

Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION4

WHY IS MARRIAGE CHANGING?5

THE DECLINING INFLUENCE OF CHRISTIANITY6

MARRIAGE AND RELIGIOUS LIFE7

REFERENCES13

Introduction

Beginning a marriage means establishing some kind of relationship with in-laws and redefining relationships with other relatives. Loving partnerships do not just happen; they must be developed consciously. Couples who have been married for many years often tell us that it takes a lot of work to keep a marriage going. Young people who are just getting married often say that they intend to make their partnership flexible enough to meet their personal needs even though such flexibility may change their whole idea of what marriage ought to be like. (Jenkins, 1992) Such couples are taking an experimental approach to marriage. Whatever the cultural climate, whatever the age, marriage has always been a venture into the unknown for the young couple about to form such a partnership. Whatever society prescribes as an ideal for their marriage, whatever concept of marriage they may have acquired through observation of their parents or other couples, their marriage is something unique, if only in that they are two unique individuals. Whether their marriage works, whether they can change it to meet their evolving needs, whether they can work out a mutually satisfying and fulfilling partnership—these are never predetermined. Marriage, therefore, is always an adventure, whether it is entered into with awareness or simply accepted as a "natural" thing to do.

Why Is Marriage Changing?

Many people still think about sex, love, and marriage essentially the same way St. Thomas Aquinas did 700 years ago: Sex is to be experienced only with one's spouse and primarily for the purpose of procreation. Although most of us are persuaded that sex in marriage ought also to be enjoyable, we still tend to feel that any sexual behavior that cannot at least potentially lead to reproduction is perverted. The idea that virtuous women should enjoy sex, even in marriage, is very recent. (Cochran & Beeghley, 1991)

Today marriage is changing because our society is changing. The declining influence of conventional religion, the increasingly antipersonal nature of our society, the use of products such as the birth control pill and the automobile, the creation of an enormous job market, the increasing demand for advanced training, and the population explosion resulting in the predominance of young people in our population have all attributed to changes in norms and behaviors. Consequently, even a 14-year-old baby sitter can identify five differing life styles among her customers. The number of people who are intentionally experimenting with alternatives to traditional marriage probably is quite small, but one thing seems certain: The basically antisexual outlook of Aquinas no longer dominates our morality or our behavior the way it did not ...